現代スコットランドの先祖調査ブーム―調査手法の発展と系図学的想像力―

抄録

There is a recognizable “genealogy boom” in contemporary Western countries. Although at one time genealogy or family history that explores ancestors progressed with the heraldry of royalty and nobility, today, genealogy has become the hobby of the middle class, which has led to the establishment of the “genealogy market.”

In Japan, only a few studies have mentioned this genealogy boom. Anthropologist Paul Basu and geographer Catherine Nash studied the personal practices of amateur genealogists, particularly diasporic “New World” genealogists, with emigrant ancestors. However, thus far, precedent studies have not always considered the institutional aspects and meanings of the collective practices of genealogy.

This paper aims to grasp the historical development of the genealogical institutions that assist amateur genealogists in their ancestral search in the United Kingdom, especially in Scotland. The paper also aims to understand the collective meaning of the genealogical imagination that is awakened by these entirely personal practices. In other words, this paper presents the historical changes that have occurred in genealogy in Scotland from both broad foreign and domestic perspectives and demonstrates that the personal practices of researching one's ancestors influence the representation of the Scottish “nation.”

The contemporary genealogy boom has occurred against various backgrounds: the arrangement of genealogical information in register offices and libraries, establishment of genealogy / family history societies at the national and local levels, worldwide active collection of genealogy information by the Mormon Church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), technological progress (e. g., the creation of a digital database of genealogical information, and proliferation of the Internet, etc.). Chapter IV of this paper particularly examines the numerous family history societies that have been established since the 1960s and 1970s in Scotland and England. The establishment of these societies was influenced by the legislation of the Local Government Act, covering the entire United Kingdom, and the efforts of the Scottish Genealogy Society in Scotland.

Genealogy as the personal practice of researching one’s ancestors is actually associated with collective institutions such as ScotlandsPeople. Various similar institutions for genealogical research can enable the Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Scottish governmental tourist board, VisitScotland, to strongly enhance their “Ancestral Tourism Initiative.” Particularly after the 1999 devolution in Scotland, genealogical imagination has been roused by the growth of genealogy tourism. Since then, the worldwide Scottish diaspora has been viewed as a part of the “New Scots.” In this paper, the transnational genealogically imagined community including the diaspora is referred to as a “trans-nation.”

In another dimension, the contemporary progress of genetics has begun to produce interesting results: (a) leading biologists are now attempting to rewrite the genealogy of all of humankind, and (b) amateur genealogists can use DNA profiling to search for their own ancestors. If these movements were coordinated, many people could imagine and gain a sense of the whole history of humankind. In any case, the fundamental circumstances for imagining “humankind as a nation” may have been gradually prepared in this genealogy boom.